With a summer of surgery recovery coming up, Lori surprised me with a quick trip to Disneyland. I know, she spoils me. She booked via GetAwayToday, decided to try staying at a Disney resort and opted for Pixar Place. Not exactly knowing what she was doing, she chose some add-ons and options. We will get to those later.
The Henderson family dropped us off at the airport, and I'm told Bella cried as we left. I'm not sure if it was because she would miss or the fact that she knew where we were going, but either way, still a tender moment. We flew out of Provo with Breeze, and I have to tell you, I'm a HUGE fan of the Provo airport. We checked bags and navigated TSA in about 5 minutes.
Our Uber was there and waiting, but it was a late flight and we hit our room around 11 pm. The check-in was kind of a blur, and who really pays 100 percent attention to all of that? Something about club level, views and the elevators. We were on the 13th floor, which was kind of spooky, but we rolled with it.
The elevators are unique. They have 4, with two touchpads located by them. You pick your floor, and are then told which elevator to enter. There are no buttons in the elevators themselves. You just trust that you pushed the right touch screen and entered the correct elevator.
THE ROOM. THE VIEW. THE EXPERIENCE.
Honestly, the food quality was incredible. All you can eat, Disney resort quality, and all the Diet Coke a boy could want. Just a quiet little place to eat and relax.
The parks were crowded. I thought the first week in May would be low crowds, but it turns out we ran into Bats Day (hundreds of Goth folks) and Star Wars (May 5th). We used our lightning lane like bosses, though. Oh, and Club Level came with one wildcard Lightning Lane. It was valid for everything except Radiator Springs Racers and Rise of the Resistance. We chose to use ours to walk onto Guardians, when the standby was 90+ minutes.
We had a great time celebrating our 36th anniversary!
Another perk of staying on Disney property is park entrance. We walked across the street, used our keys to enter Grand Californian resort, then it was a short walk to security. We NEVER waited in line for them or for park entrance. And we entered right by Grizzly River. Here is the rope drop crowd we were in. Note: we arrived at 7:55 for 8:00 rope drop.
Here's where our story takes a bit of sad turn. After our 2nd night of park hopping, Lori mentioned her toe was hurting. Part of her upcoming foot surgery is to address a growth on her little toe and the fact that the arthritis is curving her toe out. I won't post a picture of what the toe looked like when she took her sock off, but it was GROSS. Since then, medical professionals have looked at it and remarked they've never seen anything like it. I'm amazed the foot surgery still happened, but it did! Lori tried to put on a brave face, but day three just wasn't happening for her. She wanted to sleep, so I set off on an adventure.
I made my way into Disneyland. I stopped to listen to the 5 piece band, then went and attended Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. That show is phenomenal. I then listened to the Dapper Dans for a bit, went through each and every shop on Main Street, then went to the Tiki Room. I rode the Mark Twain riverboat. I hit up Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway and went into every store I could find. I walked through the castle. I road the train and the Monorail. Even spent some time on a double decker bus. I ended my adventure by enjoying a jalapeno cream cheese pretzel. Being solo at the park was weird for sure, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but it was unique and memorable, and a chance to do some things I normally don't do.
As far as the view for World of Color and the fireworks, it was different for sure. We had a great look straight down at WoC, and we could listen to the soundtrack on our TV, but the projections don't really work from the 13th floor. Fireworks was a bit of stretch as well. We could have opted to go to the roof pool for those, which I'm sure would have worked better.
All in all, I give Pixar Place a solid A+ grade, especially with the club level extras. This plus the Disney cruise have turned me into a bit of a spoiled Disney Dude, but I love it.
